So far in the tournament, Mumbai had not won any of their victories by convincing margins. As it turned out, they chose the best moment to sign off with as emphatic a win as any. The win capped off a remarkable tournament for Mumbai, who had hung on by the skin of their teeth to get through to the knock-out stages, and then put together two efficient performances to start filling up a trophy cabinet that had lain bare for six tournaments from the start of 2008 - often, even though Mumbai had entered tournaments as strong favourites.

The initial struggle

It wasn't all smooth sailing for Mumbai by any means though, with very few periods of domination for more than half the match. During their innings, Mumbai lost three batsmen to run-outs, and only one of them was the result of smart fielding. All of them though, were supremely avoidable. The only one to put his head down for Mumbai was James Franklin, who has played quite a few good knocks for both Mumbai and New Zealand. Franklin made 41 invaluable runs off just 29 balls and held the top-order together after coming in at Number 4. The only reasonable support he got was from Suryakumar Yadav who hit 24 off 17. Incidentally, both Franklin and Yadav were among Mumbai's run-out victims.

From a healthy 105/3 in 13.4 overs, Mumbai lost a rush of wickets to be all out in 20 overs. What worked in their favour though, was yet another tail-end cameo by Lasith Malinga who hit two sixes at the fag end of the innings. Eventually, Mumbai ended up with 139. It was a total that was some way short of the 150 they had looked capable of reaching, and against a Bangalore side that had topped 200 for its past three innings, didn't look very intimidating.

Bangalore start well

The much awaited battle between Malinga and the Bangalore top-order seemed to be going mostly one-way, with Tillakaratne Dilshan taking on his compatriot in the first over. That first over seemed to set the tone for Bangalore, with Dilshan leading the charge. Gayle hardly had any of the strike, but no RCB fans were complaining, with the score-board reading 38/0 after 4 overs, and the equation down to 102 runs needed off 96 balls.

The slide after the start

From the first ball of the fifth over though, Mumbai seized control of the match, and then never let it go. Bangalore might have seemed to be in control for large parts of it earlier, but for the business end - the one that mattered - it was Mumbai all the way.

It started with Harbhajan gambling and deciding to give Lasith Malinga a third over. He had bowled his customary two overs at the start, but Mumbai needed wickets, and Harbhajan chose to trust his chief wicket-taker. His trust was rewarded when, with the first ball of the over, Malinga uprooted Dilshan's stumps. In the next over, Harbhajan brought himself on, and with it the heat on to Bangalore's under-cooked middle-order. Off the last ball of his first over, Harbhajan rapped Gayle on the pads, and even though the big West Indian had taken a stride forward, he was judged out. With Gayle and Dilshan gone, the pressure was on Bangalore, because even though the chase wasn't steep, the rest of the batting hadn't inspired much confidence either.

The only man who could have taken Bangalore to victory was Virat Kohli. However, the Kohli of today was a far cry from the winner of back-to-back Man-of-the-Match awards. Confronted with a pitch that wasn't a belter, and having lost both openers, Kohli visibly struggle with his timing and placement. He eventually became Harbhajan's second big wicket, when he holed out off his Indian team-mate. He was the fourth RCB wicket to fall, but given how little confidence the other batsmen inspired, he may as well have been the tenth one. In theory, the chase was still on, even when Kohli fell, with Bangalore 73/4 and requiring 67 from 49 balls. In practice, the rest of the batsmen just folded until Bangalore were all out for a meagre 108 in 19.2 overs.

Harbhajan Singh had ended with match-winning figures of 3/20 from his four overs - more so because two of the three wickets he took were those of Gayle and Kohli. Just as Harbhajan was the undoubted player of the final, Lasith Malinga was the undoubted player of the tournament. Not only had ended up in a familiar position at the top of the wicket-takers list, he had also contributed significantly with the bat. In spite of the absence of several of their big names in Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma and Munaf Patel, Mumbai had managed to do with a young side what more experienced sides could not do despite numerous attempts. Their celebrations and jubilation at the close, were well earned.